Ganesh Festival Begins In Mumbai

MUMBAI, INDIA, September, 2012, (Gulf Times): Mumbai welcomed its favorite elephant-headed Lord Ganesh as the 11-day Ganesh Chaturthi festival began yesterday amid tight security. The police were on watch to safeguard the installation of gigantic, medium and small statues of Lord Ganesh in different public venues, housing complexes and individual homes. Security has been tightened with the deployment of 19,000 police across Mumbai to prevent any untoward incident, officials said.

The festival is celebrated with great enthusiasm in the city and the entire coastal Konkan since last week as over 300,000 big and small statues started arriving in the city from artists' studios in different parts of Mumbai and Raigad. At some places the statues have been installed with thematic presentations replicating the likes of famous Dilwara temple of Rajasthan, Nepal's Pashupatinath temple or Bikaner's Laxmi Vilas Palace.